3. Ethnocentrism, Prejudice, and Stereotypes

Ethnocentrism

the natural tendency to see the world through one’s own cultural lens.

Enculturation

the process by which individuals learn and adopt the customs, values, behaviors, and beliefs of their own culture.

Socialization and enculturation

Ethnocentrism—viewing the world through one's own cultural lens— is a natural outcome of _ (learning how to behave in society) and _ (adopting the values and norms of one's culture).

• Early Learning

• Internalization

• Judgment of Others

Three stages explain how ethnocentrism develops naturally

Early Learning

Parents, teachers, and society reinforce cultural norms and expectations

Internalization

Over time, these norms become automatic, influencing thoughts and actions.

Judgment of Others

When people encounter different behaviors, they may see them as "wrong" or "strange" because they don’t align with their cultural norms.

Flexible Ethnocentrism

Understanding other cultural perspectives without necessarily agreeing with them. It allows for learning and open-mindedness while maintaining one’s own beliefs.

Flexible Ethnocentrism

An example is studying criminal culture to understand it without endorsing it.

Inflexible Ethnocentrism

Viewing the world only through one’s own cultural lens and refusing to consider other viewpoints. This can stem from ignorance or unwillingness to understand different perspectives.

• Ingroup loyalty

• Ethnocentric hostility

• Authoritarianism and rigidity

• Self-esteem

• Contact with outgroups

Psychological Factors Contributing to Ethnocentrism

Stereotypes

generalized images that we have about groups of people, particularly about their underlying psychological characteristics or personality traits

Autostereotypes

Stereotypes about one's own group.

Autostereotypes

These are generalizations or simplified beliefs that people hold about the characteristics of their own culture or social group.

Heterostereotypes

Stereotypes about other groups.

Heterostereotypes

These are generalizations people make about people from other cultures or social groups.

• Selective Attention

• Appraisal

• Concept formation and categorization

• Attribution

• Emotion

• Memory

The Development of Stereotypes - A Psychological Analysis

Selective attention

refers to the process by which we filter out many of the stimuli that bombard our senses, thus receiving a more meaningful, finite amount of information that we can then process

Appraisal

refers to the process by which we evaluate the relevance of stimuli in terms of their meaning to our lives.

Concept

a mental category we use to classify events, objects, situations, behaviors, or even people with respect to what we perceive as common properties.

Categorization

refers to the process by which psychological concepts are grouped together

Attribution

refers to this process by which we infer the causes of our own and other people’s behavior

Emotions

important motivators of our behaviors

Memory

refers to our ability to remember past events, actions, people, objects, situations, learned skills, and so forth.

Semantic memory

a special type of long-term memory for rules, ideas, and general concepts about the world, including other people

Semantic memory

it is usually based on generalizations or images about events, experiences, and learned knowledge.

Prejudice

refers to the tendency to prejudge others on the basis of their group membership.

Prejudice

often used to describe the tendency to think of others in a negative way based on a negative stereotype.

Discrimination

typically refers to the unfair treatment of others based on their group membership.

Prejudice and discrimination

The difference between prejudice and discrimination is the difference between thinking/feeling () and doing ().

Institutional discrimination

Discrimination that occurs on the level of a large group, society, organization, or institution

1. Self-reflection and awareness

2. Educate yourself and others

3. Confront prejudice when you see it

Steps Working to Reduce Prejudic

appraisal

the tendency to judge another person or group based on personal biases rather than objective facts

categorization

the process of grouping people together based on shared characteristics, often leading to stereotypes

selective attention

the tendency to selectively notice and remember information that confirms pre-existing beliefs